Sunday 12 February 2012

Where the Right Went Wrong (Video)
Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "Among the people who saw this crisis coming was the conservative economist Bruce Bartlett, the supply-side champion who wrote the manifesto for the Reagan Revolution.... Yet for all those credentials, he is today an outcast from the very conservative ranks where he was once so influential. That's because Bruce Bartlett dared to write a book criticizing the second George Bush as a pretend conservative who slashed taxes but still spent with wild abandon."
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Public Utility, Private Profit: Privatization of Water is as Benign as Lucifer
Richard Raznikov, The Rag Blog: "Water is the basis of all life. It is preposterous that it might be owned and that some may be thereby deprived of it. Thanks, however, to the World Bank, which is actually just the operative arm of the largest U.S. banks and whose policies can bring down governments - c.f. Italy and Greece in the past few months alone - the commons argument is quickly dying. Most Americans, being inhabitants of a nation which does not generally have these worries, are unaware of this."
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Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It
Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Gebeloff , The New York Times News Service: "The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits.... The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year. And as more middle-class families like the Gulbransons land in the safety net in Chisago and similar communities, anger at the government has increased alongside."
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James O'Keefe: Investigating Voter Fraud, or Just a Fraud?
Brad Friedman, The Brad Blog: "James O'Keefe and his band of co-conspirators at his ironically named Project Veritas outfit have another new video in their 'Voter Fraud Investigation' series out. So that means, naturally, they're misleading the public again. This time, O'Keefe's video portends to show some of his courageous, unnamed and unseen cohorts at various voter registration centers in Minnesota, asking whether they can have voter registration forms to take home to 'Thomas Brady' and 'Timothy Tebow,' so they can register them to vote."
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Occupy Movement Regroups, Preparing for Its Next Phase
Erik Eckholm, The New York Times News Service: "Far from dissipating, groups around the country say they are preparing for a new phase of larger marches and strikes this spring that they hope will rebuild momentum and cast an even brighter glare on inequality and corporate greed. But this transition is filled with potential pitfalls and uncertainties: without the visible camps or clear goals, can Occupy become a lasting force for change? Will disruptive protests do more to galvanize or alienate the public?"
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Army Officer's Leaked Report Rips Afghan War Success Story
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "An analysis by Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, which the U.S. Army has not approved for public release but has leaked to Rolling Stone magazine, provides the most authoritative refutation thus far of the official military narrative of success in the Afghanistan War since the troop surge began in early 2010. In the 84-page unclassified report, Davis, who returned last fall after his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, attacks the credibility of claims by senior military leaders that the U.S.-NATO war strategy has succeeded."
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Bishops Reject White House's New Plan on Contraception
Laurie Goodstein, The New York Times News Service: "The nation's Roman Catholic bishops have rejected a compromise on birth control coverage that President Obama offered on Friday and said they would continue to fight the president's plan to find a way for employees of Catholic hospitals, universities and service agencies to receive free contraceptive coverage in their health insurance plans, without direct involvement or financing from the institutions."
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Thirty Queer Writers Explore What Divides LGBTQ Communities
Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout: "The 30 writers in Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's latest collection, 'Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?' offers a direct and searing confirmation of de Montaigne's observation. As they assess the lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movement's transition away from the out-in-the-street celebrations of queer difference that were common in the 1970s and 80s, they turn a spotlight on those sidelined by the rush toward respectability and almost-like-straight-world sameness that has dominated the agenda for more than a decade."
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Guantanamo Ten Years Later: Guantanamo Expert Andy Worthington Speaks
Brad Jacobson, Truthout: "On January 12, the tenth anniversary of the notorious military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Truthout interviewed investigative journalist and Guantanamo expert Andy Worthington. Author of 'The Guantanamo Files' and co-director of the film 'Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo,' Worthington has spent the last six years painstakingly worked to keep alive in the public consciousness the human faces and personal contexts of the 779 people imprisoned within the facility."
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Under New Law, France Would No Longer Be Sexual Playground of Men Like Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Janice G. Raymond, Truthout: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn's (DSK) marauding sexual behavior has passed out of the news cycle. However, in the aftermath of DSK's alleged rape of a Guinean hotel maid in New York and subsequent accusations of his rapacious pattern of behavior in France, more information about his actions has emerged. Several recent events have also challenged the French laissez-faire image of sexual exploitation so personified by DSK."
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Successful Defense of Poor, Black Tenant in Landlord's Shooting Shows Strength of Unlikely Coalitions
Carl Finamore, Truthout: "'People Wasn't Made to Burn' by journalist Joe Allen reads like a lively, creative work of fiction with its abundance of larger-than-life characters and a seemingly overdramatized backstory of shocking events awaiting one black family escaping rural poverty in the South and landing amidst Northern urban racism. The story includes corruption, greed, a heavy dose of Chicago political intrigue,and, finally, arson, death and murder. It even has a surprise ending."
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The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday, February 13.

Protesters Battle Greek Police as Politicians Set to Endorse Bloody Bailout
Read the Article at Reuters

Republicans Specialize in Hypocrisy and Phony Divisive Issues
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

George Monbiot: Conservatism Thrives on Low Intelligence and Poor Information
Read the Article at AlterNet

Protesters Mark Anniversary of Scott Walker's Assault on Democracy
Read the Article at The Progressive

Europe Sees Widespread Protests Against Threat in Anti-Piracy Treaty
Read the Article at The Christian Science Monitor

What are the Differences Between Democrats and Republicans?
Read the Article at News Participation

A Suggested Strategy for Secularists To Discourage School Prayer Initiatives
Read the Article at TPJ Magazine

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